Roots of Blood is a campaign against the Woodland Trust's wildlife and conservation policies and its use of euphemistic language to mask its darker activities

Killing wildlife

The Woodland Trust buys woodlands for conservation and recreation purposes, where in the course of its stated objectives, deliberately kills roe deer and other wildlife. When asked why it does not disclose this to the public in its "Woodland Management Principles" and "Glossary of Woodland Terms" documents, its management says they consider it "unnecessary".

One must question why they consider disclosing the killing of wildlife as "unnecessary" when such an activity would be unacceptable to a significant proportion of the UK population. Regrettably, much to do with funding!

Skin Deep Conservation

The word "conservation" in respect of the natural environment is massively abused and in many, if not most, cases so-called conservation organisations engage in environmentally damaging activities to fund their existence.

Recent research by the Carnegie Institute, among others, concluded that planting trees in the Northern Hemisphere above 20° latitude has little or no value in combating climate change, and can actually contribute to global warming. Worse still, the Woodland Trust use emission belching excavators for months on end forging pathways through environmentally sensitive woodlands in the name of "conservation".

So we challenge the Woodland Trust to provide evidence that its activities, and the activities it encourages in others, reduce rather than increase the causes of climate change.

If it cannot show that it is conserving the natural environment as a whole, its claim to conserving woodlands and wildlife is profoundly flawed, as the well-being of both of these depend on the health of the overall natural environment.

So is the Woodland Trust really a conservation organisation?

That is for you to decide!

Fundraising

According to charity data from CaritasData, the Woodland Trust is spending the equivalent of over 80% of membership income on fundraising costs.

One of the Roots of Blood
Ad-Trailers at Vane Farm, Kinross, where the Woodland Trust were attending the RSPB Countryside Fair